This website uses cookies

This website uses cookies to give you the best user experience. You have disabled cookies which will render many features of the GSL website unusable. To change your cookie settings, select the option below and follow the instructions. These instructions are also obtainable from the privacy & cookies link at the bottom of any GSL page.

This website uses cookies to give you the best user experience. If you continue without changing your settings we'll assume you are happy to receive all GSL cookies. To change your cookie settings, select the option below and follow the instructions. These instructions are also obtainable from the privacy & cookies link at the bottom of any GSL page.

The Geological Society offers grades of membership for every stage of your career, from student to retirement. Find out about the benefits of membership, and how we can help you achieve and maintain Chartered status.

Information about the Geological Society’s internationally acclaimed books and journals for authors, editors, librarians and readers. Order publications, find out about the Lyell Collection and read guidelines for preparing a paper or submitting a book proposal.

Information and resources for teachers and students from
primary education onwards; for those making careers choices
after A-levels including undergraduate and further degrees
at university; and for those seeking professional
geosciences training or exploring lifelong learning
opportunities.

News and updates for the press, policy makers and members of the public interested in how the geosciences
interact with society. Find updates about policy related meetings, consultation responses, position statements and
press releases.

Geoscientist is the Fellowship magazine of the Geological Society: with news about science, people, the Society, features, reviews, opinion, letters and forthcoming events. All this, and more, can be found sooner here, in our online version.

The Geological Society of London is the UK national society for geoscience, providing support to over 11,500 members in the UK and overseas. Founded in 1807, we are the oldest geological society in the world.

Past winners

Research Grants

Applications open for 2019.

The 2019 round of Society Research Funds is now open for applications. The average award has previously been about £1,000.

Applications for support from any of the Society funds must be made on the form which can be downloaded below. Please read the guidelines noting in particular the allowable and non allowable costs and the information required.

The form must be completed in full and your application supported by two Fellows of the Society who must each complete a Supporting statement form (below).

The forms can be sent separately to the Awards Secretary at the Geological Society but in order for the application to be considered at the annual meeting of the Research Grants committee, all forms must reach the Society no later than 1 February 2019.

If you have any questions regarding Research Funds, please contact the Awards Secretary.

The following funds are available for application:

Mike Coward Fund

For fieldwork in structural geology as applied to regional tectonics.

William George Fearnsides Fund

To advance geological science.

Edmund Johnson Garwood Fund

For the encouragement of research in stratigraphy, with palaeontology, and in physical geology. Preference will be given to mid-career applicants.

Gloyne Outdoor Geological Research Fund

For the prosecution of outdoor research preferentially of a palaeontological or stratigraphical character, and preferentially within the limits of the British Commonwealth.

Annie Greenly Fund

For detailed geological mapping.

Elspeth Matthews Fund

For members of the Society for geological field-based research anywhere in the world. Preference will be given to early career applicants.

Daniel Pidgeon Fund

To promote geological original research. Preference will be given to early career applicants.

Joseph Burr Tyrrell Fund

To assist geologists of Great Britain and Ireland to travel to and in Canada; or to assist in the publication of meritorious papers by geologists of Great Britain and Ireland upon the geology of Canada; or to assist such geologists in any other way best adapted to further this object.

Robert Scott Memorial Award

CASP (formerly known as the Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme) has generously bequeathed an endowment in memory of Robert Scott, one of their senior geologists who died suddenly in 2012 of leukaemia. The interest earned will be used to support a single research award of £2000 each year.

To be eligible for the award applicants must be UK based and either (a) registered postgraduate students; (b) university postdoctoral researchers; or (c) university lecturers. Postdoctoral researchers and university lecturers should preferably apply within 7 years of their first appointment to an academic position.

Awards shall be made to support research under the following terms:-

(a) At least 50% of the award should be spent directly on research fieldwork (transport, accommodation and field logistical support);

(b) Preference will be given to applications that are in regard of fieldwork in Arctic regions (field areas within the Arctic Circle);

(c) Preference will also be given to projects that focus on basin analysis studies including tectonics, structural geology, sedimentology, stratigraphy and provenance analysis.

The Society is no longer able to offer the Timothy Jefferson Research Fund which is spent out.

Timothy was a highly talented young geoscientist whose PhD focused on Antarctic palaeobotany. He was awarded the Palaeontological Association’s Presidents Prize in 1982. Timothy was also a very talented climber, and tragically died in an avalanche while climbing in the high Andes of Peru. In 1985 his family and friends generously endowed the Timothy Jefferson Research Fund which has provided funding approaching £40k over the intervening years. The Society is grateful to those who made this possible.

Other grants administered by the Society

Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust

The Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust, and the Willson family, generously supports the Geological Society Grants programme, in memory of their son and brother, Jeremy.

Jeremy was a great athlete, geologist and adventurer. He sadly died of new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in March 2006. In the spirit of Jeremy’s interests, the Jeremy Willson Award supports field-based projects with a distinct focus on the physical environment. To find out more about the Jeremy Willson Charitable Trust, visit www.jwct.org.uk.